Cakes and Parties, Part 2

Four days later, we celebrated my baby's first birthday!  I can't believe how time has flown.  She is so precious and a blessing to our entire family.  

My sister, Rebekah, took this picture of her!

I had found this cake on a blog that I follow and just had to make it for her first birthday.  It turned out great!

I was able to get a silicone large cupcake cake pan from The Christmas Shoppes for $4!  The blue melted chocolate was brushed into the base and I let it set several times and then unmolded it.  After the cakes were baked in the cake pan I then shaved off the base cake to fit into the chocolate shell.  I made 2 layer cakes for the base, stacked and layered them with homemade buttercream frosting, and covered them with homemade marshmallow fondant. The colors for the flowers and the bow were just made with food coloring added to the fondant.

I loved the idea of a haute chocolate bar, so I made chocolate pops to melt into steamed milk, homemade marshmallows and other mix ins (candy cane bits and white chocolate) for the hot chocolate.  

It was really good.

Cakes and Parties, Part 3 coming up!

Cakes and Parties, Part 1

 I have been cooking away, trying new recipes, snapping pictures, and someday soon I will post them.  Meanwhile, I'll give you some eye candy with all the cakes and parties that I've hosted since December.  It has been a really busy time as I had my twins' birthday party, my baby's first birthday, my brother-in-law's party, and Easter.  Anyway, I was able to make some pretty neat creations and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did in making them!

First, we'll start with Christmas.  I made this cake from a recipe that I found on Tablespoon: Eggnog Tres Leche Cake  It was a hit!

Next, we'll move on to my brother-in-law, James, birthday.  He is from Kansas and his favorite team, of course, is the Kansas City Chiefs.  My sister picked out this cake from a picture she found online, then asked me to make it for her.  I had my husband who is an amazing artist outline the logo for me and then I filled it in.  We took James to his favorite local restaurant for lunch and surprised him with a KC Chiefs birthday party!  It was really fun.

Cakes and Parties, part 2 coming up!

Wonderful Website

I have been cooking up a storm and I promise to post more pictures and recipes soon.  However, in the meantime, you have to check out this site I just found and have been cooking from all week: http://www.skinnytaste.com/.  I love the fact that she already has the calories figured out and you can choose from the posts which meal you'd like.   The recipes are pretty easy and really good.  Enjoy - I have been!

Strawberry Pancakes

The other day while at the grocery store, I found strawberries that actually looked fresh and weren't too expensive.  Of course I grabbed a box and my girls were thrilled when I came home.  They requested strawberry pancakes for breakfast.  The funny thing is that I've never made them before, so I'm not sure where they got the idea.  They're just creative like that!  So, as not to disappoint, I whipped up a few.

First, I made my whipped cream by whipping heavy cream and a bit of sugar to taste.

Then, I pulled out our favorite pancake mix from New Hope Mills - Buttermilk Pancakes.  Go to their link that I provided in the previous sentence and learn about their mill and how they make their mixes.  They're not the typical pancake mix - this stuff is THE BEST!  Our home has rarely been without it.  We know the owner personally and he and his family are wonderful people.

Anyway, enough of that commercial:  Here is their recipe:

I then added my fresh, diced stawberries and folded it into the mix.

I ladled some mixture into a hot, buttered griddle, flipped them when ready, added a dollop of fresh whipped cream and some fanned strawberries for garnish, and... voila - a nice, fresh pile of strawberry pancakes.  Now that's a good breakfast!

Making Brown Sugar

Did you know you can make your own brown sugar?  It's not necessarily cheaper, but when you need it and can't get to the store, it's handy to know this little trick.  We used to do this all the time when I was growing up as we lived in the country and a grocery store was a 20 min. or more trip into town.  I haven't made brown sugar in years, but the other day I was in the midst of making cookies and really didn't have the time to run to the store.  So, here's what I did - I don't have exact measurements, but you can eyeball it.

First get a good pile of sugar in a large bowl.

Then pour a small amount of molasses into it.  I tend to use less rather than more because if you get too much molasses, you end up having to keep adding sugar to get the right consistency and sometimes it can go on forever!

Toward the end you may still have little balls of molasses.  Keep mashing it (I used the back of spoon) until it is completely worked into the sugar.  It takes some patience, but keep working at it.

I imagine you can also do this in the food processor, but I'm not sure if it would eliminate the small balls of molasses.  You may still need to do some mashing by hand.

Voila!  Beautiful, golden, brown sugar.

Another trick I learned, from my Uncle's sweet, southern mother, for any brown sugar is to place a piece of  bread on top of the sugar in the canister you're storing it in.  The bread absorbs the moisture and turns hard instead of your sugar.  Therefore, leaving you with fluffy brown sugar every time!

Boeuf Bourguignon becomes Venaison Bourguignon

We were given a deer this year. After Dad and Jeremy prepared it I decided to try my hand at making Julia Child's famous Boeuf Bourguignon with it.  Therefore, the name becomes Venaison Bourguignon.  I followed all the same steps only making it with venison rather than beef.

I grew up on venison, but sadly over the last decade I lost my taste for it.  I think because I had it from people who prepared it wrong.  It MUST be cooked for a good, long time to lose the wild game taste to it.  Because this recipe is so rich and has so many flavors packed into it, I knew it would be good.  It doesn't taste exactly the same, but it got me eating venison again, so I would consider it a success!

I used the recipe here from Food.com and made egg noodles to pour the stew over.  Here are some pics of the process!

The Butchers

Browning the venison in my awesome cast iron dutch oven.

Ready to go in the pot and in the oven!

Several hours later...

Browning the onions and mushrooms

Egg Noodles

Bon Appetit!

Ice Cube Tutorial by Angelina

I just ran across this video I took Sept. 2010 of Angelina telling us how to make ice cubes.  It's so cute!